ひとりゐて眺むる宿の荻の葉に
風こそ渡れ秋の夕暮
風こそ渡れ秋の夕暮
- Roma-ji
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Hitori ite nagamuru yado no ogi no ha ni kaze koso watare aki no yūgure
- English Translation
-
Sitting all alone,
lost in thought in my dwelling,
on the reed leaves
it is the wind alone that passes:
an autumn evening
- Meaning
- As I sit alone and gaze out lost in thought, only the wind passes over the reed leaves by my dwelling. It is an autumn evening.
- Commentary
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Book Three Autumn Poems 107
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
This is a poem by Minamoto no Michinari. No one comes to the house where he broods alone; only the wind sweeps by, rustling the reed leaves.
The rustle of reed leaves was often sung as something that suggests a visitor, and here the loneliness of being visited only by the wind is laid over the scene of an autumn evening. With this poem the sequence on reeds and autumn wind begins.
The first line, "hitori ite," means "being alone," showing a solitary state.
The second line, "nagamuru yado no," means "the house where I gaze," nagamu carrying the sense of brooding.
The third line, "ogi no ha ni," is the reed leaves that rustle in the autumn wind, and 108 and 111 in this book place the same words in their first line.
The fourth line, "kaze koso watare," means "only the wind passes," with koso resolved in the realis form watare. The poem pauses here.
The last line, "aki no yūgure," ends on a noun, naming the hour of deepest loneliness and leaving a lingering mood.
- Author
- Minamoto no Michinari
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Aki no yo no tsuki ni kokoro no akugarete kumoi ni mono o omou koro kana
- Next Poem
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Ogi no ha ni soso ya akikaze fukinu nari kobore ya shinuru tsuyu no shiratama